y for dressing as quickly as
possible. Her relief at not being obliged to sleep with the other girls
was forgotten in her returning consciousness of having to live with them,
and to do their hair and to button their boots. With desperate haste
she struggled out of her serge frock and into a muslin one, that had
a strange new method of fastening that was extremely baffling; and five
minutes later, trembling, uneasy, and flushed with the hurry of her speedy
toilet, she stood knocking at the door of number two.

'It's me,' she said feebly, in response to the curt inquiry from within.
Her inadequate explanation was followed by a few quick steps on the other
side of the door, which was then flung open with an impatient movement;
and the head girl, putting hairpins rapidly into her hair as she stood,
was looking down at her sternly.

'You should go to one of the younger ones, if you want to know anything,'
she said crossly. 'Where's Jean Murray?'

'It was Jean Murray who told me to come,' answered the child, looking a
pathetic little object in her half-fastened muslin frock, with her hair
standing out wildly round her head. 'I'm sure I didn't want to come; I
don't know how to do anybody's hair; I told her so. But she said it was
because I was the youngest, and----'

'What _are_ you talking about, child?' interrupted Margaret. Her mystified
look was lost on Babs, however, as the child stared down in much misery
and confusion at the little steel buckles on her new evening shoes. She
went on unhappily with her stammering confession.

'She said I'd got to do the head girl's hair because I was the youngest,
and I was to make haste, or I shouldn't be in time. I did make as much
haste as I could, _truthfully_,' she added, looking up timidly at her
frowning questioner; 'but there were such a lot of hooks on my new frock,
and I'm not used to hooks. I've always had buttons before, you see.'

One or two of the neighbouring doors had opened by this time, and quite a
small audience was assembling to hear Barbara's attempt at explanation. A
giggle that swelled into a laugh brought dismay once more into her heart;
and a suspicion that she had been hoaxed slowly dawned upon her.

'Isn't it true?' she cried, turning upon them desperately. 'Haven't I got
to do the head girl's hair?'

'You'd better do your own first, I should say,' observed one of the
onlookers, carelessly; and the others laughed again.

The head girl silenced them per